VAN GISBERGEN FINISHES THIRD IN MELBOURNE

The opening race of the BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge started under clouds with rain just clearing in time for the start of the 13 lap sprint. After qualifying 5th in the Top Ten Shootout Shane van Gisbergen managed to jump two positions on the first lap and raced under immense pressure for the remaining laps, holding off Craig Lowndes to finish 3rd.

IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison also had a positive start to the AGP weekend making up three positions in the race to finish 14th.

Wilson Security Racing’s Tim Slade was lucky to avoid major incident in the race when on Lap 6 Russell Ingall made contact with the rear of the #47 car heading into Turn 7. Slade made a good recovery to finish 18th.

Shane van Gisbergen – Driver, SP Tools Racing Car #9

“It was a pretty exciting race, at the start I jumped the Kelly boys and towards the end of the race I was right on Tander. The car felt good and I managed to keep Lowndes out for the whole 13 laps.

“It’s nice to see a Ford win this one for a change, hopefully it can be an SBR Ford tomorrow!

“Tomorrow we start from where we finished today’s race so it will be good to start from the second row on the grid.”

Alex Davison – Driver, IRWIN Racing Car #4

“I was really happy with the improvements we made on the car for the race. Practice and qualifying yesterday felt like a bit of a nightmare but it was great to be competitive in the race especially when I was battling for position.”

Tim Slade – Driver, Wilson Security Racing Car #47

“I think I was lucky to keep the car off the wall when Russell made contact with me, he was trying a bit hard and hit me from behind on the right rear corner.

“I didn’t feel like I got into a rhythm in the race. I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in the brakes after I locked up going into turn 3 and that played on my mind a bit for the rest of the race.

“The car is definitely good enough to move forward in the race tomorrow so we are looking to make good progress in race 2.”

Tomorrow the V8 Supercars take to the track for Race 2 at 6:15pm AEDT with all cars starting from where they finished today’s race.